A sudden hill torrent on Tuesday and Wednesday swamped the early vegetables of more than 200 farmers in Kanchannagar union of Fatikchhari upazila, Chattogram. The worst damage was on the chars along both banks of the Dhurung canal, from Manikpur to Kanchannagar Hat.
Early rabi and winter vegetables had been planted on about 100 hectares of these chars, and much of the crop was destroyed by the water. Some farmers had used their savings and others had taken loans from NGOs; instead of counting profits they are now counting losses.
In Holipara, farmers Mohammad Sumon and Murshed Alam lost red amaranth, bottle gourd and sweet pumpkin. On Pallanpara char, Md Rafiq had taken a Tk 2 lakh loan from an NGO to grow early vegetables on three plots; the torrent eroded and flooded them, costing him about Tk 2.5 lakh.
Nearby, Ashish Chandra Das had planted papaya, cucumber, brinjal, radish, cauliflower, cabbage, potato and chilli on 16 kani of land, hoping to sell early in the season at good prices. With his own money and a Tk 5 lakh loan from BRAC, he had invested about Tk 9 lakh. Most of his crop went under before it could be sold.
The upazila agriculture officer said the torrent had caused extensive damage to the chars on both banks of the Dhurung and that the farmers' standing crops were completely lost. The agriculture office will list the affected farmers and send the list to the authorities.
This report is based on information from Krishi Shomoy's Chattogram correspondent.
Photo: Syed Nur Kamal / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Krishi Shomoy
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